Electronic gaming machines (“EGMs”) offer a variety of games such as slot games, video poker games, roulette games, keno games and other types of wagering games that are commonly deployed at a casino for use by players. Play on the EGMs typically requires the player to place a wager on the outcome of a primary game. On many such EGMs, secondary games or bonus rounds are also available after the player qualifies by attaining a certain winning combination or event on or related to the primary game. The player would then enter the secondary game or bonus round where they have an opportunity to win extra game credits, game tokens or other awards. In the case of ‘game credits’ that are awarded during base play or bonus play, they are typically added on to the credit meter total on the EGM and provided to the player upon completion of a gaming session when the player “cashes out.”
Historically, upon cash out, the player was given the equivalent cash value of the credits remaining on the EGM credit meter in the form of coins deposited into a coin tray of the EGM from a coin hopper that stored quantities of coins inside the cabinet of the EGM. Alternatively, an EGM could dispense bills or a “hand pay” could be performed by a floor attendant who would come to the EGM where the player was playing and pay them in cash for the number of credits on the machine.
In recent years, the market for EGMs has moved away from cash based payout systems to cashless systems that dispense printed tickets with bar codes that can be inserted into the bill validator of any EGM on the casino floor, or exchanged for cash at a casino cage or a cash-out kiosk. EGMs have also been enabled to dispense or reload cash cards that use a magnetic stripe or smart card technology for storing a cash value to minimize the need for cash and coin handling in the EGMs.
In this context, it has become commonplace to represent currency in the form of game credits. Typically, it is the case that the specified credit value on a given game will be equivalent to a recognized available denomination in the target currency. For example, in many slot games in commercial use throughout the United States today, 1 credit is equal to 1¢. In these games, cashing out the remaining credit value on a game is straightforward as the credit value may be converted directly into the specified currency value as a linear combination of recognized available denominations.
The present invention is directed to a gaming system and method that uses credit values which are not equivalent to an available recognized denomination in the target currency. For example, a game in which 1 credit is equal to 0.1¢. In this case, it follows that cashing out the remaining credit value on a game is not straightforward as the total credit value may result in a fractional denomination value that cannot be paid directly to the player. The natural method that is resorted to when dealing with these fractional credit portions is to round up or down. This method is rationalized because the residual amount that is neglected in the rounding process is so small. However, over a large number of transactions, the total amount won or lost through this rounding process can never be specified or altered. The method described in the present invention allows for the identification and handling of these nonzero strictly fractional credit portions in such a way as to guarantee a specified theoretical return to the player while at the same time allowing for an exciting secondary game experience upon cash out.